Trivia Tricks News

Hello Tricksters! The time has come to share more details on Friend Pass, which will allow you to invite 7 friends into any online lobby through room code, without them needing to purchase Trivia Tricks!

We’re proud to announce that Friend Pass will be available on June 1st! (Friend Pass now launches on May 30th!) Here's a short video trailer we've put together going over the details of joining an online lobby as a free Friend Pass player!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Any questions? Good! Here's a handy FAQ!

• [h3]What is Trivia Tricks Friend Pass?[/h3]
  ‘Trivia Tricks Friend Pass’ is a free Steam download that will allow anyone to join ‘Trivia Tricks’ games via a room code.
  
  
• [h3]How do I get Friend Pass?[/h3]
  Friend Pass will be available to download through Steam, either as a ‘demo’ to Trivia Tricks or as a separate application (details to be finalized).
  
  
• [h3]How many people can play?[/h3]
  Up to 7 players can join an online lobby through Friend Pass! Lobbies can mix and match any combination of full game owners, Friend Pass users, and local players.
  
  
• [h3]Do you have to be added as a ‘friend’ on Steam to join the lobby?[/h3]
  Nope! Friend Pass players can join any lobby once they know the room code! Handy for streamers!
  
  
• [h3]Is there a playtime limit?[/h3]
  Nope! Friend Pass players can play as much as they like!
  
  
• [h3]Is this a limited time event?[/h3]
  Nope! Friend Pass is a permanent addition to Trivia Tricks!
  
  
• [h3]Are there any limits to Friend Pass?[/h3]
  Friend Pass players will not be able to host games, but after joining an online lobby through a room code they will be able to play with the same settings as full game owners. This includes Workshop packs, Co-Op Vs Boss mode, and partaking in games with Twitch Chat!
  
  Friend Pass players cannot create their own characters or unlock achievements. If a Friend Pass player later decides to purchase the full game then any progress made in Friend Pass will carry over into the full game. This includes cosmetics, statistics and achievements (any earned achievements will unlock on Steam as soon as the full game is loaded).
  
  Do note, because of the way Steam separates play time between full games and demos, Steam Trading Card drops (available soon) will only be available when playing the full game.
  
  
• [h3]What will happen to Steam Remote Play?[/h3]
  Trivia Tricks will continue to support Steam Remote Play as a way to join friends or connect extra controllers. However, we’ve had feedback from players that we should simplify the experience of sharing Trivia Tricks with others - we will therefore be removing the references to Steam Remote Play from Trivia Tricks’ How to Play menus. Remote Play will continue to work as it does today and improve with Valve’s updates to the service.
  
  
• [h3]Will the release of Friend Pass be the final Early Access update?[/h3]
  Friend Pass is the final major milestone that we will be releasing in Early Access, but we have some extra features and polish planned before Trivia Tricks graduates into full release!
  
  And once Trivia Tricks hits launch day the updates won't stop! More updates are planned for Trivia Tricks even after launch, so stay tuned for more exciting news!
  
  
• [h3]My question isn’t answered here![/h3]
  That’s not a question!... But that’s fine! Join the Trivia Tricks Discord to ask your question to the development team directly!
  

Throughout the span of two and a half years Trivia Tricks has received a frequent stream of content updates including Co-Op Vs Boss Mode, Seasonal Events and Steam Workshop Support while remaining at the same price. This pricing was chosen to reward players who put their trust in us to deliver our Early Access promises, and to thank those who have offered their invaluable feedback during development.

Trivia Tricks now represents more value than it did in 2020 and with the launch of Friend Pass the price of the full game will increase to be in-line with this added value. Once Friend Pass becomes available on June 1st! (Friend Pass now launches on May 30th!), Trivia Tricks will be priced at $14.99 / £12.79 / €14.79. This will be the base price of Trivia Tricks upon leaving Early Access too.

We would like to thank all our fans who have supported us during Early Access, without you Trivia Tricks would not have been possible! If you’re interested in hosting Trivia Tricks lobbies or creating your own custom characters then Trivia Tricks’ current price is the cheapest that it will be available for the foreseeable future. Don’t miss it!



The character selection screen has been altered to give you a more streamlined process getting into games! You will now be prompted to select how many players are using the same device to play. Once confirmed you'll be given the appropriate number of slots to select your characters! This should clear up some confusion around the correct place to add local players. For most players this is simply an extra button click and then proceeding as normal.



As always, if you like what we’re doing, please hit the thumbs up below this news post! If you have more detailed thoughts then do consider leaving a Steam Review letting us know what you think - they really help us out!

If you want to reach out to us developers then we can always be found in the Discord. Thank you for following Trivia Tricks!

Hello everyone! This update contains some fixes to potential causes of disconnections when joining a lobby. We’re still making progress on Friend Pass and if you missed the big news about Friend Pass then check out our last major update notes here!

• Added a possible fix for players not being able to connect when trying to join games.
  
• Adjusted the time it takes for the messages informing the player on the status of their join attempt to appear.
  
• Increased the timeout period for several parts of the connection process.
  
• Fixed a bug where, if the player encountered an error while joining a game, the message to say that they had been disconnected wasn’t appearing in time.
  
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause Trivia Tricks to crash on the Main Menu if Workshop thumbnails failed to download.
  

Like what we’re doing? Hit the thumbs up below this news post! Have more detailed thoughts? Consider leaving a Steam Review letting us know what you think. Or come chat with us devs in the Official Discord. Thank you for following Trivia Tricks!

Hello everyone! This update contains a little extra polish and bug fixes that we’ve finished up over the last week while making progress on Friend Pass! If you missed the big news about Friend Pass then check out our last major update notes here!

• Whenever players' points increase or decrease, the numbers on the podium will now animate to the new score instead of instantly updating.
  
• Podiums which have no player behind them now show nothing instead of "0".
  
• Fixed an issue where clicking players avatars in the Tab Menu wasn’t opening a player's Steam Profile.
  
• Improved the clickiness of the avatars in the Tab Menu.
  
• Fixed a bug during the ending where, after playing two games in a row, the camera would briefly cut to looking at the players on the podium from below.
  
• Fixed a bug where, after the host selected "Turn Off All" in the Categories Menu, the ‘Categories Enabled’ counter did not update for client players.
  
• Fixed a bug where gamepad players were not able to see the Room Code on the Pause Menu while the answer to a question is being revealed.
  
• Players will no longer be asked to rate Workshop packs that they don't have permission to view at the end of a game.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Isle del Trickster's beach ball and the Winter Village's snowman couldn’t be clicked while a question is being asked.
  
• Fixed the new lights on the sides of the Studio rotating away from the stage instead of towards it.
  
• The stage lights on the Studio level have had several CPU performance improvements applied.
  
• Fixed a spike in RAM usage when Mr Tricks said goodbye at the end of a game, caused by an issue in the configuration of the new stage lights.
  
• Implemented several performance improvements relating to the lights and podium names/points.
  

Like what we’re doing? Hit the thumbs up below this news post! Have more detailed thoughts? Consider leaving a Steam Review letting us know what you think. Or come chat with us devs in the Official Discord. Thank you for following Trivia Tricks!

Hello everyone! This is a quick hotfix to address a small visual bug introduced in yesterday’s update.

If you missed out on yesterday’s huge update, and the announcement of Friend Pass, you can get caught up on all the details here! Thanks again!

• Fixed a bug where the player stand on the Studio and Winter stages would have incorrect textures after the Summer stage had been loaded.
  

Like what we’re doing? Hit the thumbs up below this news post! Have more detailed thoughts? Consider leaving a Steam Review letting us know what you think. Or come chat with us devs in the Official Discord. Thank you for following Trivia Tricks!

Hello all! Let’s get to the big news...



We’re proud to announce our final Early Access milestone - the Trivia Tricks Friend Pass! Friend Pass will allow you to invite 7 friends into any online lobby through room code, without them needing to purchase Trivia Tricks!

Inspired by games such as It Takes Two, Friend Pass will make it much easier to bring anybody into the Trivia fun, with no Remote Play necessary! Friend Pass players will be able to partake in all gameplay options, such as Co-Op Vs Boss or even Workshop Questions!

We’ll have more information on Friend Pass (including a release date) soon, but for now consider joining the Trivia Tricks Discord to direct any questions to us developers. We’ll be happy to answer!




Most of the last 3 months of development has been laying the groundwork to make Friend Pass possible. This has required an update to the version of Unreal Engine used and a total rework of Trivia Tricks' network code, which is no small feat! However, we’ve taken this rework as an opportunity to add many user-requested features and, because almost everything has improved, we're going to breakdown these changes by feature.




The Studio Stage was the first stage we made and after two-and-a-half years it didn't quite feel up to the standard of the others introduced since... so we've given it a makeover! You'll find some new stage lights and an updated player stand for Tricksters to stand on.




New AI characters have been added for you to quiz against!
Please welcome Mimi, Pearl, Claudia, Cap'n, Frosty, Fox, Bethany and Sarah to Trivia Tricks!
I wonder if anyone can figure out their favorite categories?




The Twitch Integrator has been reprogrammed almost entirely from scratch, giving us the opportunity to add many player-requested features...

• Twitch characters can now reach a majority during Chance Round Voting, meaning the game will progress without having to wait for the timer to finish. This majority is calculated from the number of active participants in previous questions.
  
• The stuttering when Twitch Chat characters were added has been resolved, and, if your connection ever goes down, Twitch Chat will now attempt to reconnect to the game.
  
• And, the change you've all been waiting for, the next time you collect a key from the Twitch Connection website... WILL BE THE LAST! Trivia Tricks will now refresh expired authorization tokens by itself!

We've been taking a look at how Trivia Tricks chooses its questions and investigating areas of improvement. While we’ve received praise on repeat questions being avoided we’ve heard your requests for more question variety during games, so...

• Trivia Tricks will now more equally divide the selected categories. Picking two categories? The questions you'll see will be much closer to a 50/50 split than before. Picking 20 categories? Everything will be represented!
  
• Additionally, Trivia Tricks will not ask a question from the same category more than twice in a row.
  
• Finally, we've extended every category with some new, relevant-for-2023 questions. Hope you've been keeping on top of things!
  

We are continuing to polish Workshop integration in accordance with your feedback!

• Only the host now needs to have question packs downloaded, meaning games will start much faster.
• We've adjusted the metrics behind 'trending' packs, as previously selecting a pack in a lobby of 8 players would count as an 8x boost.
  
• 'Friend-Only' and 'Hidden' packs can now be played with anyone, but the category menu will hide the details of those packs for players who don't have the rights to see them (being marked as a "Hidden Pack" to those players).
  
• The TV will now have an icon when a Workshop question is shown.
  

In preparation for Friend Pass' release we've overhauled several sections of online play, here's some of the more major adjustments...

• The 'Room Code' will be on-screen at all times in the top right corner of the screen instead of being hidden away in the pause menu. Don't worry! It still needs to be hovered to display the code.
  
• Lobby searching is much more responsive and, in the case of a failed connection, Trivia Tricks will now show a helpful message and a timeout timer. Previously this was just a black screen.
  
• We've removed the button to invite players, as this was causing confusion for Steam Remote Play and won't be compatible with Friend Pass. We recommend using Room Codes, which will work in all circumstances!
  

It doesn't stop there, here's a few other miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes available in Version 0.9.32.24!

• The Character Creator now has a 'randomize' button, allowing you to quickly see all sorts of whacky combinations. It will randomize to your unlocked items, meaning any generated characters are ready to be saved immediately!
  
• We've updated the icons in the Stage Selection menu to reflect the stages as they look today, as they were getting a little outdated with all the redesigns!
  
• The Chance Round joining section has had several UI elements polished, such as the thumbs next to players and the Twitch menus.
  
• The Achievements menu now works when Trivia Tricks is running without Steam. Additionally, we've fixed a bug where cosmetics tied to achievements weren't being unlocked in all circumstances.
  
• Fixed a crash that would occur if players failed to load another player's avatar.
  
• Fixed a rare softlock that had a chance to occur after failing to host a lobby.
  
• Trivia Tricks will no longer direct players between several menus with awkward transitions after failing to join a lobby.
  
• If, for whatever reason, Trivia Tricks cannot detect the monitor's information, the settings menu will now default to populating with 720/1080/1440/4k resolutions and 30/60/120/uncapped framerate options.
  
• Fixed any outstanding issues where particular textures would be displayed in low quality for a second.
  
• Fixed a bug where clients could see the Add/Remove AI buttons for a split second after joining a game.
  
• Fixed a bug where some sub-menus in the Workshop Browse Menu wouldn't close automatically after a game begins.
  
• Fixed a bug where the ‘Categories Updated!' text would stay on screen after players navigate away from the main lobby menu (such as Stage Select).
  
• Fixed a bug where a player’s inventory wouldn't immediately update upon using an item.
  
• Fixed an issue where shortcuts to Trivia Tricks would boot the game without a connection to Steam.
  
• Pre-emptively resolved a bug where Ganymede's Lab wouldn't have loaded during future seasonal events.
  
• During the development of this update Gustav picked a different color for their Bowtie. Who are we to argue?
  

Wow, you really read all the way down here? We'll let you in on a little secret! 👀 Open the Trivia Tricks' main menu to unlock the limited-time Lootbox and Jester Hat April Fool's cosmetics! But hurry, this giveaway ends April 6th!

And finally, if you like what we’re doing, please hit the thumbs up below this news post! If you have more detailed thoughts then do consider leaving a Steam Review letting us know what you think - they really help us out! If you want to reach out to us developers then we can always be found in the Discord. Thank you for following Trivia Tricks!